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Earlier this year Emeritus Professor Alan Shaw celebrated his 95th birthday. The Royal Historical Society of Victoria plans to have its own belated celebration and tribute to Professor Shaw at a special daytime event in our library at 239 A’Beckett Street on Tuesday 15 November 2011 commencing at 11.30 am. A panel of eminent speakers in a series of short addresses will discuss aspects of Alan Shaw’s magnificent contribution to Australian history.

Best known to many generations of students as the author of The Story of Australia (first published in London in 1955), A.G.L. Shaw has been a master of historical research and writing through such great works as Modern World History: social, political and economic development 1780 – 1950 (1961); Convicts and the Colonies (1966); his comprehensive biography of colonial governor Sir George Arthur (1980); and as recently as 1996 his History of the Port Phillip District: Victoria before Separation which he produced after editing the Gipps – La Trobe Correspondence 1839 – 1846 (1989). His expertise, judgement and finely crafted writing have been brought to bear on many aspects of Australian history.

Professor Shaw was a towering figure as Professor of History at Monash University from 1964, just three years after the university opened, until he retired in 1981, and he has been involved in the promotion of history in innumerable capacities. Here we mention only his involvement on the Library Council of Victoria (1976-85), his work in creating the Friends of the La Trobe Library (now the State Library Foundation) and his presidency of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria (1987-1991) and of the C.J. La Trobe Society from 2002 to 2004. He has been a most generous benefactor to our Society, to the State Library of Victoria and to many other causes. He has been recognised by the SLV’s ‘Alan Shaw Summer Research Fellowships’ that help honours or postgraduate university students pursue research projects over the summer vacation period. The RHSV and the La Trobe Society conduct our joint annual A.G.L. Shaw lecture in his honour. He has been a Fellow of the RHSV since 1974, and in 1998 was elected a Fellow of the Federation of Australian Historical Societies.

As part of all this, and more, he has been a wise counsellor, mentor and friend of historians, and the history movement in Victoria owes so much to him.

The A.G.L. Shaw belated 95th birthday tribute will be a largely informal event concluding with a light sandwich lunch and birthday cake. Because of the capacity of the library, numbers are strictly limited and bookings will be accepted in order of application.